Bison Smith Dead At 38

I'd heard of Bison Smith through reading magazines (and later, websites) since about '02/'03. It wasn't until this morning that I actually went out of my way to watch some of his work. I wish I got around to it sooner. Shame to lose someone so young.

I'd shot Mark's training and debut match in front of his first audience for All Pro Wrestling(Roland Alexander, owner) here in Hayward, CA. He first began circa '98 under a hood(believe he was called Mr Wrestling 3 Mark 1 or something like that) and managed by Buddy Sotello. Then he unmasked and worked as Bison Smith and had some tremendous matches and showed amazing promise for someone still so green. During APW's historic King of the Indies in 2001, there were differences in opinion amongst his original APW trainers(Mike Modest and Donovan Morgan) who left ala Misawa and crew leaving AJPW to form Noah. In this case, many left to form the Noah-affiliated Pro Wrestling Iron. Modest and Morgan helped get Mark a huge singles gig in Noah, where he held various belts and was in the tag match which would be Mitsuhara Misawa's last. Mark had outstanding careers as well in both Puerto RIcan groups(WWC, IWA) and the amazing ROH.

Just an incredibly nice guy leaving behind an ex-wife he kept in touch with and one child he dearly loved. Everyone who met him or knew him felt the same way about Mark. Just too young to be taken from us.

Mike Lano, Wrestling/Boxing/MMA photojournalism shot/published globally since 1966